This invention relates to message storage systems generally and more particularly to a method and apparatus for the deletion of trailing message portions which are devoid of significant message information signals.
Various message storage services are well known in the prior art. For example, call answering equipment connected to a telephone customer's station intercepts incoming calls with a recorded announcement, records any message which a calling customer wishes to have delivered to a called customer, and, when instructed to do so, plays back any messages recorded for the called customer. Often times a calling customer who is leaving an extemporaneously composed message for the called customer will leave long periods of silence before he begins speaking his message and after he has concluded his message. These periods of silence not only waste storage space in the message storage system but also are annoying to the called customer who is retrieving messages due to the potentially large silent gaps between messages which are played back to the customer.